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Thread: Scanners Again

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Posts
    55

    Scanners Again

    I'm looking into midrange flatbed scanners for capturing medium and large format images. I'm leaning towards an Epson 1680 Professional right now, but I noticed a new 48 bit, 2400dpi HP model that looks interesting.

    I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this unit (Scanjet 7400C)? The re's no dmax spec listed which makes me a bit wary and the software is HP's prop rietary package instead of the AI's Silverfast. Still, at half the price of the Epson with a higher optical resolution, it is intriguing.

    Anyone used this unit?

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Posts
    55

    Scanners Again

    Sorry - LaserSoft Silverfast.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Location
    Farmington, MI
    Posts
    206

    Scanners Again

    You should also look at the Canon D2400U- also 2400dpi &48 bit. I am using one and getting excellent 4x5 and 6x6 scans. I recently compared a 4x5 color neg scan from the Canon with a Pro Photo CD hi- res scan I had done by a high end service bureau. The Canon scan had better sharpness, color fidelity and shadow and highlight detail. We live in interesting times!

  4. #4

    Scanners Again

    Dave: That's interesting, what you say about the Canon 2400U. Someone submitted a couple of scans to the Imaging-resource scanning forum that showed exactly the opposite; that the Canon scans were far less sharp than a comparable photo-CD.They certainly didn't look as if they had a true 2400 dpi resolution, and another contributer with a lot of scanning experience confirmed the poor optical quality of the Canon.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Jul 1998
    Location
    Lund, Sweden
    Posts
    2,214

    Scanners Again

    I too have been disappointed by the online scans I've seen from the Canon flatbed. My money's staying in my pocket for now.

    Tim: don't forget that part of the price of the Epson pro models is for beefier, more reliable construction. If you plan to use this scanner for a while that could be worth more to you than a slight raw performance boost when new. For what it's worth, Epson have recently announced new consumer models which - surprise, surprise - counter the Canon and HP attack. There's a brief report here:

    http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0107/20.epson.shtml

    For what it's worth (2), HP have a very bad record of updating drivers for older models of their printers and scanners. It's worse in the PC world, but even on Macs, where drivers usually hang on sort-of working for longer, I wouldn't buy an HP product for anything but immediate use.

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